❮ ◈ ❯

> The mayor?

Well, yeah. He heard about you from the Church and now he wants to personally congratulate you as well. It’s just like with the ‘Obsidian situation’. The mayor has always been first to praise people for their good deeds. He is respected by a lot of people because of that. On top of that, he’s also a Local awarded with the Jade Honor Badge from the Pavilion. In levels, it would be the equivalent of a Lv.700 Host.

> …what is his name? I haven’t heard it yet.

Hybran Blacksteel. Anyhow, can you come now?

> Give me half an hour. I have some stuff to do beforehand.

Hah! I guess only you would make three powerful figures wait like that right after arriving in the System. But fine, I’ll tell them. You better not take longer than that though. The press will most likely storm into the situation and even the Throne of Glory has to give face to those guys from time to time.

> I’ll be there.

Good, I’ll be waiting for you at Black Steel’s Pavilion.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna furrowed his eyebrows after closing the chat window. “Hybran Blacksteel, huh?”

“Is it something important?” Nyx asked him, having deducted already that he had been discussing with someone after stopping in front of the bank’s door.

“Somewhat,” he replied and calmly opened the door in front of him.

“{Haha, of course, authority figures are just somewhat important to you,}” Higure remarked.

‘Take it as me being young and rebellious if you want, but I will always refuse to bow to social cues and rules,’ the therian responded as he looked around the room with Nyx following him. Unlike in the shop, several people could enter the bank since it didn’t matter which attendant Hosts used to access their accounts.

“Seems like she’s not here,” Rakna said as he saw the empty reception. “Is she sleeping again?”

“Again?” Nyx tilted her head. “It sounds like you have quite the interesting banker.”

“That doesn’t even start to describe that girl,” he retorted with a tad of amusement. His ears then twitched and he caught the smell of Lana coming from his left. She walked in from the same room she had come out running in a panic last time.

This time, however, what had been preoccupying her seemed to be the pile of papers that she was carrying. It was huge enough to obstruct her view. Her arms were hugging the documents but her sword was still firmly held in her left hand.

“U-um? Is there someone?” She asked a bit flustered and struggled to look past the pile. When she saw Rakna watching her with his mirthful eyes, her face reddened beautifully. “Ah! Please wait a moment!” She exclaimed and hastened her steps.

Nyx opened her mouth to offer her help but she was stopped by Rakna who raised his hand. She looked at him in confusion and her eyes widened instantly. For the first time, she could recognize genuine amusement on his face. It wasn’t just how his tone would sometimes sound amused or how his eyes flashed in glee; it was more prominent. If she wasn’t attentive, just the overall feeling he gave off would have given her the illusion that he was actually smiling.

She turned back toward Lana and wondered what kind of person could have possibly eroded that man’s shell to this stage without even knowing him for that long. That’s when she witnessed the sheep girl let out a yelp and trip on nothing but air.

She acted out of pure instinct and conjured a few strings of shadows to tie the documents so that they wouldn’t scatter. At the same time, Lana fell on the floor and yelped again as her face hit the tiles.

Nyx blinked in a stupor and when the girl lifted her head, she saw the comically huge tears in the corners of her eyes and her glistening pupils as she hugged her sword tight. A metaphorical knife instantly stabbed her in the heart.

“Oh god…” The former goddess whispered and Rakna hummed agreeingly.

“I know right. She never fails to impress me by how she can do that every time,” he admitted and ultimately went to crouch next to the sheep who was rubbing her nose. “Hey, you okay, Lana?”

“Y-yes! Of course!” She promptly replied and he helped her stand up. “Thank you…”

“No problem.” He nodded. ‘I can’t tell her that I stopped Nyx so that I could see her fall...’

“{How mean,}” Higure chortled. “{But I’m all about it.}”

“By the way, why didn’t you put these in a storage instead of carrying them?” The therian asked a perfectly sensible question and the adorable girl froze. ‘Though the fact that they even use physical records in here is even weirder…’ He thought to himself.

She gaped and held her head pitifully. “I forgot…”

Rakna snorted and picked up the papers bound by Nyx’s constructs. He put them down on the counter of the reception and the strings were dispelled afterward. Their conjurer then approached Lanata with a small smile.

“Hi, I’m Nyx Nocta. You can freely call me Nyx,” she introduced herself.

Lana shyly returned the greeting. “I-I’m Lanata Ovis Venera… You can call me Lana," she stuttered out and Nyx really was unable to erase the smile on her face. Rakna nodded from the side; happy to have someone who understood him. “So, um, are you here to deposit again?” The sheep girl asked once she was behind the reception, sorting the documents.

“No, I’m here to withdraw,” Rakna said and took the small pad that Lana was handing him. “About this much should be enough…” He muttered to himself and once his code was accepted, a neat pile of Talys appeared on the counter.

Lana proof checked the amount on her screen then waved at the money. “All right. You can cash them in now.”

“Thanks,” he said and his balance was instantly updated to 100k. He was about to turn around to leave when he suddenly thought of something. “Lana, can I ask you a question?”

“Eh?” She cocked her head to the side. “Sure. What is it?”

“Is there a way to hide one’s status?” He inquired and she showed a perplexed look. “Let me clarify; I just don’t mean skills that counter scans or appraisals. I mean a way to make so that my status cannot be seen by anyone, regardless of their level.”

The sheep blinked a few times then put her hand on her chin. “Hm… I don’t think so… Unless it is some sort of very rare item or skill… But even then, most of those only allow you to hide from others up to a certain level. I have heard of some items that could alter information on your status too… but they have the same limitations.”

“I see…”

“I’m sorry if this couldn’t help you…” She apologized dejectedly.

“No, no, don’t worry. I expected this. Rather, you consolidated what I had in mind so thank you.”

She nodded hesitatingly. “Okay...”

“Oh, and before we go, if I don’t come back before the end of your Trial, would you like to meet up with us? You can also message me if you need any help, though that seems very unlikely for now considering our level difference.”

Lana’s expression brightened and her smile bloomed. “Of course! If it’s okay with you, I would like to do some Quests together. A-and Nyx too, if it’s okay…”

The night goddess chuckled. “There’s no need to ask. I would love to hang out. We’ll introduce you to the rest of our group too.”

“Un!” The sheep girl nodded enthusiastically.

“Well then, I’m afraid we have to go now. There’s an… important ‘event’ that I have to go to,” Rakna said and waved his hand before heading to the exit. “See you, Lana.”

“Goodbye, Lana,” Nyx followed up.

“Bye!”

Once Rakna and Nyx were out, the latter immediately raised her voice, “So? What’s going on? What you asked her wasn’t just a passing curiosity, was it?”

“You’d be right. Remember the cause of my crippled state?”

“The Spawn of Pandora…” She replied with a weirdly incensed tone.

Rakna glanced at her with a sharp eye. Pandora… he had read the same thing on Verias’ status. It was something he definitely would have to ask her about later.

“Yes. Well, Gray just informed me that the Church and the Basilica of Eternal Night are ready to give me rewards for killing him. But, on top of them, the mayor wants to meet me as well.”

“In that case… is it that you want to hide your status from them?”

“No. There’s no point. They probably aren’t scrupulous enough to look into my status even though I’m much weaker than them and that I’m also being rewarded for my actions.”

“Then, what is it?”

Rakna stopped walking and leaned on one of the couches in the resting room. “Other question; do you remember what I did the morning we met up with our Guilds?”

“What you did…?” She frowned. “Oh, when you were seen helping that girl in your wolf form?”

He nodded and if he could, he would have grinned as he thought of his plan. “Obsidian and Rakna Xiorra… The mayor wants to reward them both. Two birds with one stone… What if we made them look like two different people to the public eye?”

Nyx mused. “Interesting idea…”

Rakna smiled internally. “If I convince others that Obsidian, a Nine-Tailed Wolf of noble descent with immense power, is related to me somehow, it would become one of the best social safeguards I could ever hope for.”

“I understand. You want to make a clone to meet with the mayor. But for this ploy to work, you need to make ‘Obsidian’ impossible to analyze,” Nyx concluded. “That is a fine idea but… how do you plan to do that?”

“First, to make the clone, you already saw the solution yourself,” Rakna said.

Nyx raised an eyebrow at that then recalled a certain battle she had been a witness of. “Your battle against Tairen… you made a clone of yourself to attack him by surprise.”

“Correct. The only thing I need to work out though is how I made it look lifelike,” he uttered and a swirl of cold energy appeared in his hand. “But I already have an idea. I did the same thing with my three ‘tenants’ after all,” he added and directed the energy to his right where it took the shape of his body before defining the finer details of his clothes, his hair, and facial features.

“[Star Puppetry,]” he called out the name of his spell, and the puppet was completed. A unicolor version of himself made out of raw energy was standing still next to him. But he wasn’t done yet.

He walked to his copy and placed his hand on its shoulder. He then closed his eyes and focused on his Soul Core. He pumped his soul power to make it flow faster, then directed a decent portion of it into the puppet. The result was instantaneous. Colors literally flowed into the puppet until it was flawlessly life-like.

Rakna stepped back to observe it while Pronos was thunderstruck by the sight. “Well, step one is a success. Even if I’m still not sure why it does that…”

“The body is a reflection of the soul and the soul is a reflection of the body,” Nyx suddenly said. “It is often said that appearance is a facet of the soul. Many magic theories revolving around the soul use that as a basis.”

“That’s good to know,” Rakna commented. “Now…” He breathed in and his eyes glowed. His fangs grew and his midnight fur started growing on his body. Before long, he met the ground with four of his limbs, and his body expanded to its maximum size as five additional tails grew on his back to get the count to nine once again.

When his transformation was done, his size was bigger than the average horse and his nine tails grandly waved around behind him. At the same time, the practice he had done to hide the number of his tails in his wolf form before had also allowed him to get rid of the mane he had gotten from the Dusk Lion genome. It wouldn’t have been a good idea to let it be.

“Hm, the feeling of having nine tails is really quite comfortable,” he said with a growly voice.

Nyx smiled lightly. “I wouldn’t know that but you do look dashing.”

The wolf grunted and waved his head at Pronos. “Little guy, you go on the puppet for now,” he said and the little snake complied with a nod. “Now, step three; is to control my clone,” he mumbled and looked at the blank expression of his puppet-self. “I can control it mentally but… hey, Higure, Fray, could one of you get into that puppet and control it for me? Is that possible?”

“{Ugh, we could, I think, but don’t ask me. I’m very bad at acting,}” the lioness said.

“{Well then, that’s a job for me,}” the author said. “{Don’t worry, I was quite avid of theater.}”

“Then you go in,” Rakna ordered and pulled on Fray’s soul inside his mindscape and sent it straight into the puppet. The appearance didn’t change at all this time but the puppet’s countenance went through a complete makeover.

Nyx almost felt unwell for some reason when she saw Rakna’s body abruptly move with a certain grace and an oddly wise but irritating smile on his face. “This… is disturbing,” she stated.

Rakna himself glared at ‘Fray’ with a snarl and the author cleared his throat. “My apologies,” he said and moved his limbs around to get a feel of his new body before schooling his expression. His confidence was not unfounded as he managed to make a perfect replica of Rakna’s usual mien.

“Is this fine?” He asked with a cold and detached tone and even the original version was surprised.

“That’s… good,” he admitted.

“{Now then, if I may ask, what’s the final step?}” Higure inquired through a telepathic channel that Nyx shared. The latter also was curious to know.

“Obviously, next is to hide my and the puppet’s status,” the wolf declared and in a flash of light, a rectangular object with the depiction of a Pierrot on it materialized in front of his eyes.

“For that… we’ll need a Joker.”

* * *

“Hey, Clown.”

Someone called out to Gray who had been waiting in the Pavilion’s Hall for about twenty minutes. Right away, the warlock knew who it was. There weren’t many people that would call him like that with both such an indifferent and casual tone.

The catch however was how deep-toned and growly it was. It sounded more like a beast…

“You gotta be kidding me…” The cyborg sighed as he saw a horse-sized wolf with nine tails walking in his direction while everyone around gawked at it. “You’re not just a magnet… you’re a damn trouble factory, kid.”